


Like It's 2009

by The_Alias (Artemis_Day)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Awesome Clint Barton, Darcy Lewis Feels, F/M, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2019, Pre-Relationship, Protective Clint Barton, School Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:07:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23311369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Day/pseuds/The_Alias
Summary: If there was one thing Clint was sure of, it’s that this was not part of the mission.
Relationships: Clint Barton/Darcy Lewis
Comments: 10
Kudos: 86
Collections: Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2019





	Like It's 2009

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2019 Square E5: Feelings Accidentally Revealed.
> 
> Note: The Barton family either doesn't exist here or Laura is Clint's sister instead. Either way, there is no cheating going on.

If there was one thing Clint was sure of, it’s that this was not part of the mission.

“I need you to be my boyfriend at my high school reunion.”

Darcy Lewis literally walked into Jane’s lab, coffee tray in hand, and laid it right on him. No hyperbole. No hesitation. Just… _that._

“Uh… what?” He’d been messing with an arrowhead. Just minding his own business. Why the hell did he agree to be Jane’s substitute bodyguard anyway? 

Darcy rolled her eyes. “My high school reunion is next Saturday. I need a hot boyfriend to show off to all the mean girls who used to pick on me.”

“You don’t really need to prove anything to people like that, though,” said Clint. “Plus, they might not even be there.”

“I’m not taking any chances. So, you in?”

Seriously, he was _minding his own business._ “Why would you ask me? No offense, but you know there’s a bit of an age gap, right?”

“I can like older men,” she said, folding her arms. “And I totally like you… platonically… you know what I mean.”

He really didn’t. “Why don’t you ask Steve? Or Barnes even. They’d work, wouldn’t they?”

“They most certainly would not,” Darcy declared. “I can’t ask Bucky because Jane is hogging him.”

Jane, in the middle of completing the third draft of her bridge schematic, smirked. 

“And I can’t ask Steve because I’m pretty sure Sam and Natasha have a secret plan to gang up on him someday. So it has to be you. You’re a better choice than either of them anyway.” She left his coffee on the desk he’d commandeered for his less than aerial guard duties. It was a French roast, his favorite. 

She remembered.

“How am I a better choice?” he asked before taking a sip of the heavenly liquid.

Darcy scoffed like that was the stupidest question in the world. “Because you’re the hot one.”

She grabbed her paperwork for the day and dove right in, leaving Clint to stare after her like an idiot.

 _He_ was the hot one? 

That had to be a mistake. He was hearing things. She definitely didn’t actually say that.

Right?

**

Of course, he wasn’t going to say no. Call him soft.

He was right there in a fancy tux on the night of Darcy’s reunion, combing his hair and putting on _cologne_ of all things. It was some Versace shit Natasha bought him once as a joke. Said it would make him smell like fresh mountain air.

“God, what smells like wet dog in here?” Darcy asked, walking into the empty lab.

And thank you, Nat. Thanks a bunch.

“You look uh…” He didn’t have the words to say how she looked, because everything that came to mind made him sound like a perv. “You look good.”

“Thanks,” she said, playing with a lock of wavy hair. “You look good, too.”

 _‘I look like your dad taking you to prom,’_ he thought. “So uh… ready to go?”

“Just about.” She crossed the room to get her purse. The red cocktail dress she had somehow gotten on over her hips and chest rode up the tiniest bit over her thighs, exposing the very top of her stockings. She fixed it without a care and threw the strap around her neck, letting it settle between her generous cleavage. “Okay, let’s do this!”

 _‘God-fucking dammit.’_ He tried to discreetly adjust his pants as they headed for the door. _‘This is going to suck.’_

**

The reunion was held at her old high school, which was only an hour away by helicarrier. Darcy insisted on landing five miles away in an empty field and they bussed it the rest of the way. A little boy wearing a Hawkeye shirt kept staring at him. Clint stared straight ahead out the window.

When they arrived, the party was in full swing. Decorations resembled something out of 2009, or so Clint assumed that was the theme. A Black Eyed Peas song was playing, and it was just as ear-destroying as he remembered. He stood back as Darcy signed in and got her name badge.

“Good to see you again, Darc,” said ‘Hello, my name is Amanda’. “It’s been way too long.”

“Sure has,” Darcy said, “but it’s so good to see you again. You look great!”

“You, too! I love your dress.”

“Thank you! I love yours.”

They exchanged a few more pleasantries before it was time to go in. Clint ignored the stares and whispers of the welcoming committee (‘Isn’t he that one actor? Jeffrey something?’ ‘He looks more like one of the guys in that Avengers stage show I saw in Vegas.’) with all the inhuman focus he honed over years of working with SHIELD.

“I could’ve sworn her name was Allison,” Darcy muttered to him.

Clint shrugged as they entered the gym. There were at least two hundred people inside. Two hundred and thirty by his estimate. Most of them were well-dressed, though there were a few lackadaisical types who had shown up in jeans and a t-shirt. No one looked as good as Darcy, though that probably wasn’t a fair basis for comparison.

“Okay, that’s Colin Hernandez, I knew him from debate club,” Darcy pointed out random people whose names she was ninety-nine percent certain of. “And that’s Rebecca Mann. She had the locker next to mine and it always smelled like baked potato for some reason… oh shit.”

She dragged him behind the bleachers.

“What is it?” Clint asked, only to be shushed.

“Be quiet, they’ll hear us.” He barely heard _her_ over Lady Gaga soulfully crooning PokerFace. “Over there by the back door, that’s them.”

“Them?”

“Them!” Darcy pointed wildly at two women wearing mermaid gowns. They were pretty enough (still not as pretty as Darcy), and chatting over glasses of champagne. “That’s Judy Huntington and Cheryl Van Alden. They’re the ones who bullied me. Oh, they look just as evil as ever!”

They looked pretty normal compared to everyone else, but he wouldn’t question her.

“So now what?” he asked. “Want to avoid them?”

“Are you kidding?” Darcy grabbed his arm. “I came here to show their snobby asses up, and I am not backing out now!”

They crossed the dance floor, getting several looks which Clint should’ve been able to ignore. He’d been trained to avoid any and all distractions while on missions, and this was technically still a mission. Maybe if he wasn’t stuck in a goddamn monkey suit.

Judy and Cheryl (he assumed the blonde was Judy and the brunette was Cheryl) stopped talking when they spotted Darcy.

“Oh hello,” Judy(?) said, looking them both up and down with a frown. “Can we help you?”

“Hey Cheryl,” Darcy said (dammit), “long time no see. You look great.”

“Yeah, so do you,” Cheryl said. “Miss…”

Darcy’s smile cracked. “It’s me, Darcy Lewis. You remember me, right?”

The two women looked at each other, and then the actual Judy gasped. “Oh my God, yes! I know you. You’re the one who tried to ask Robbie Sitzer to prom and then tripped in the cafeteria.”

“I see you finally got that chocolate stain off your ass,” Cheryl jeered.

They broke down laughing. Clint immediately pinned them as the kind of people who’d scream at retail workers for not giving them discounts and try to get them fired. 

“Yeah,” Darcy said, looking like she’d sucked on a lemon. “Well, anyway, I’d like you to meet my date, Clint Barton. You might have heard of him.”

On cue, Clint put on his best, most approachable smile. He might’ve used it on a hotel employee in order to convince her he really was just a traveling businessman not looking to take out the French arms dealer on the eighteenth floor. “Nice to meet you lovely ladies, Darcy’s told me so much about you.”

They shared another look, eyebrows raised. Cheryl nodded at him. “Yeah, nice to meet you… Hawkeye, right? Do you prefer Hawkeye in public or Mr. Barton?”

“Just Clint is fine,” he said. “Mr. Barton never felt right to me.”

“Yeah, I bet it doesn’t,” Judy muttered between snickers. “So Darcy, how’d you end up dating an Avenger? You must really be getting up in the world.”

Darcy faltered. She might not have, but the women’s eyes were like spotlights, exposing all her flaws to a captive audience. “Yeah I… I actually work with the Avengers now. I mean, I work with someone else who works with them. I mean…”

“I heard you were working for some fringe scientist in the desert,” Cheryl grinned.

“I am. I mean, I was! Now she’s with the Avengers, so I’m with the Avengers.”

“Oh is that right?” Judy asked. Cheryl had already doubled over. “Well, Darcy, that is really something! I should have you at one of my shows.”

“Yeah uh…” Darcy coughed. “You have a show?”

“Oh yes, a fashion show. I’m an up and coming designer.” Judy did a little pose like she was showing off her dress. Clint didn’t know why. It looked like any old dress you’d see at the store. “You know, we’re always looking for gorgeous, successful women to dress for big events. Maybe you can come and watch them.”

She gave a haughty laugh. Darcy was sweating.

“Heh, yeah. Good one,” she muttered. “Well uh… we should be going. Lots of people to meet. Nice seeing you.”

“You too,” Cheryl sang.

Darcy had a vice grip on Clint’s arm, but he would’ve moved with or without her prompting. 

“Well, that was better than high school anyway,” Darcy mumbled, her eyes wobbling. “At least they didn’t make pig noises at me this time.”

“Are you okay, Darcy?” Clint asked.

She sucked in through her nose. “Yup. I’m fine. I need a drink. I’ll get you one, too.”

He watched her run to the refreshments table. The many heads in the crowd blocked her from his sight. Clint stood back, trying to get a better angle. Maybe if he got into the rafters, he’d have better luck. It was only a thirty-foot ceiling. He could climb that in two seconds.

“Oh my god, can you believe her?”

Clint barely heard them over the music. He tapped his hearing aid (he only really needed it for big crowds like this), and moved into the shadows as Judy and Cheryl approached. 

“I know, right?” Judy sneered. “She was enough of a loser in high school, but hiring some guy to pretend to be an Avenger? That’s just pathetic. And did you see her dress?”

“Ugh, so tacky. Like, sorry, Darcy, it doesn’t matter what you wear. You’re always going to have thighs like an elephant.”

Their giggling vanished through the swinging door of the ladies' room. Clint pursed his lips, briefly considering ambushing them on their way out. They certainly deserved a lot more than a good scare, but no. He was a gentleman. If he was going to give those smug little shits what for, he was going to need some backup.

He whipped out his phone and sent a few texts.

**

Ten minutes later, Darcy was chatting with a few of her old girlfriends from her brief tenure in track. 

“I think I just decided running wasn’t for me,” Darcy said, shrugging and blushing the tiniest bit. “My lungs aren’t big enough.”

“I bet you were good at it,” Clint said reassuringly.

“She certainly jumped hurdles with the best of them,” one girl said as the others nodded in agreement.

Darcy’s blush deepened. “Well, I-”

What sounded like a rocket roared over their heads. Through the open skylight, a man in armor dropped into the gym, landing in a circle the befuddled guests had made for him.

Ironman himself stood tall and crossed the dance floor. A hundred phones were out and snapping pictures. Clint heard female gasps a foot away and smiled.

“Sorry to interrupt the festivities,” Tony said, pulling his helmet back. “I will be out of your way in a sec. Just need to pass something along to my good friend.”

He nodded at Clint before turning to Darcy. “So Darcy, Jane wanted me to tell you the meeting tomorrow is going to be at two now instead of one. I know you’ve got your speech ready to go, so I’d say take the extra time to prepare before you go on. Also, you forgot your phone.”

Tony placed a top of the line model smartphone in her hand. Immediately the screen lit up. **Good Evening, Darcy!**

“Uh…” Darcy stared all around like she didn’t know who to talk to. “How… the meeting?”

Tony put an arm around her. “Yeah, you know. The one with the global summit. You’re about to change the world, you and Jane. Don’t be so modest!”

“Uh… but…”

“Hey, Tony, we have to get going!” Natasha Romanov wandered into the gym, earning open-mouthed stares from men and women alike. She ignored them and nodded at Darcy. “You look amazing tonight, Darc. Don’t forget, we’re having lunch on Friday. If I find out Barton over there kept you in bed all morning again, I might just have to shoot him.”

“I… I…”

“You’re the best, Nat,” Clint saluted at her.

She saluted right back. “Anything for you guys.”

Out the corner of his eye, he could just see Cheryl and Judy with bent knees and eyes too big for their heads. He gestured at them with his chin and Natasha gave him a tiny nod. 

“Hey,” she said to Judy, “did you design that dress?”

Judy somehow managed to pull her spine straight. “Yes! Yes, I did!”

Natasha pursed her lips. “Hmm… well, I’ll see you later, Darcy. Have a great night everyone!”

“Remember to tip your waitress,” Tony said as he took flight.

When they were gone, the whispers started. All eyes were now firmly on Darcy. Clint took her hand, pulling her close. He made brief eye contact with Judy and Cheryl, smiling at their gobsmacked faces. Leaving them alone to stew, he walked Darcy to the edge of the gym as the DJ suddenly remembered his job and got some music going.

“That was…” Darcy shook her head. “That was… what was that?”

Clint smiled. “I just thought they should know how incredible you are. Because you are incredible, Darcy. You really are.”

When her eyes filled with tears, there was no sadness. In fact, he’d never seen her happier. “Thanks, Clint. You’re the best.”

“Happy to help.”

By now, almost everyone had given up looking for them. They went back to dancing like nothing had happened. The night would go on as normal.

“You know,” Darcy said, “with everything you’ve done, I could almost think you really like me.”

Clint’s heart missed a beat. Then another. He swallowed. “Uh… well, you know, I…”

Great. No way out of this one. This fucking sucked.

Darcy threw her arms around him. “I might really like you, too.”

Actually no, this didn’t suck. Not at all.

“So… you want to dance?” Clint asked just as a new song came on.

It was Party in the USA. Motherfucker.

She grinned and took his hand, leading him into the crowd. Clint decided he didn’t mind this. In fact, he kind of liked it, awful pop music and all. Making Darcy Lewis smile might just be worth the world to him.


End file.
